Casualties of War (1989)

Sean Penn: Meserve

Photos 

Quotes 

• Meserve : This is a weapon, this is a gun. This is for fighting, this is for fun.

• Meserve : Yea though I walk through the valley of evil, I shall fear no death. Cuz I'm the meanest motherfucker in the valley.

• Meserve : Brownie, look into my fuckin' eyes I'm gonna hypnotize you. YOU'RE FINE!

  Cpl. Brown : I knew it man, I knew it!

• Eriksson : Give me a minute on this thing we're doing. I mean, what we're doing. What are we doing, sarge?

  Meserve : We have a VC suspect. Is that what you mean? She's a VC whore and we're gonna have fun with her.

  Eriksson : She's just a farm girl.

  Meserve : You're the cherry here, right? So lighten up.

  Clark : -Let me carry the weight. -What's the problem, sarge?

  Meserve : He don't think our VC whore is a VC whore.

• Clark : The army don't wanna surprise us.

  Meserve : Leave it to the dinks for that, huh?

• Prosecutor : So you don't feel responsible for the rape and murder?

  Clark : No, sir. I don't.

  Prosecutor : Is it your feeling, Corporal Clark that you are wrongly brought to trial by the U.S. Government?

  Clark : I don't have anything against the government. But I just think soldiers like Tony Meserve and me... belong out in combat... not here. Throw us in the stockade and you're helping nobody but the Viet Cong.

  [Cct to Private Hatcher] 

  Prosecutor : When Sergeant Meserve called you, did you go willingly into the hootch and rape the girl Tran Thi Oahn? Please answer the question.

  PFC. Herbert Hatcher : Y-yes sir.

  Prosecutor : Have you any idea why Eriksson stayed out of the hootch?

  PFC. Herbert Hatcher : Well, he was brand-new, sir. I was there a lot longer than him. At least three weeks longer than him.

  [cut to Private Diaz] 

  Prosecutor : You're saying, then you involved yourself in rape to avoid being ridiculed?

  PFC. Antonio Diaz : When you go out on a patrol, sir you're not gonna be as good as you wanna be. These guys aren't helping you do anything. There's gonna be four people on that patrol, and an individual. And so I did what I did, and I got remorse about it. But I also got remorse about talking at this trial. I have a loyalty to the men I was out there with.

  [cut to Sergeant Meserve] 

  Prosecutor : Is it standard for U.S. personnel to have sex with prisoners and kill them?

  Meserve : The prisoner tried to give away the squad's position.

  Prosecutor : She was ill and coughing from the abuse of you and your men. She shouldn't have been there to jeopardize your position! You dragged her out and raped her! And then you blame her for coughing, so you kill her! Does that about sum it up?

  Meserve : Well, sir... I've seen a lot of killing... which it's our duty to do, because it's kill or be killed. Sometimes you hate the enemy so badly... About two ops back... Operation Turner... we saw a hootch that had been burned down. Some Vietnamese were carrying kids out of a bunker. They suffered from smoke inhalation. I gave one small child mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. That just shows you we ain't all combat over here.

• Meserve : You probably like the army, don't you, Eriksson?

  Eriksson : This ain't the army. This ain't the army, Sarge.

• Meserve : Some mad fuckin' minute, huh cherry?

• Meserve : You're taking your turn.

  Eriksson : No.

  Meserve : Well maybe when I'm through with her, I'm gonna come after you. Maybe when I'm done humping her, I'm gonna come hump you!

• Meserve : Oh, you wanna take an attack posture wit' me? Yeah, you got a weapon. Clark got a weapon, Clark got a knife! We all got weapons! Anybody can blow anybody away, any second. Which is the way it ought to be. Always.

• Meserve : You're taking your turn in there.

  Eriksson : No! I ain't raping nobody!

  Meserve : You think you're sayin' no to ME?

  [Ericson turns and walks away] 

• [the squad watches the storm after raping the girl] 

  Clark : When's the last time you had a real woman, Sarge?

  Meserve : She was real. I think she was real.

• Meserve : Dumb, very fucking dumb.